


A Month, A Week, A Day, A Minute, A Second- With You

by thatsjustHoneyDewbabe



Category: Shiki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Amnesia, Gen, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-11-07 12:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11059230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsjustHoneyDewbabe/pseuds/thatsjustHoneyDewbabe
Summary: Three Sotoba villagers desperately trying to reclaim their lives and start anew in a nearby city.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am not very good at writing. I will be using some Japanese honorifics, this series may be long or short, I am not sure yet. This chapter is very short, there will be another one posted soon.

 

It has been 2 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, and 3 minutes since Toshio left the destroyed Sotoba behind. Exactly that, no more and no less. Sleep was a thing of the past. He gave that up exactly 3 weeks ago, and relied on bitter coffee to fuel any desire he needed to have to continue living. Everything was gray and bleak, and he didn't remember the last time he saw bright colors.

 

“Mm” he grunted in annoyance, quickly spotting his roommate reaching out to poke his latest patient's bandages. His roommate froze and looked at him. “Natsuno, leave him alone for now. He'll be up soon. Come on now, let's watch something on television.”

 

Toshio looked left to the room, then right of the room, before realizing that the remote for the television was sitting in his own lap. He grabbed it and pressed the power button, adjusting where he sat so he could lean himself on the table. His vision slightly shook everything he could see, and he closed his eyes and sighed to himself. Natsuno grabbed the remote and began to fidget with the colorful buttons on it, staring at it keenly and constantly looking back and forth between the remote and the television. He pressed down on a particular button and suddenly the television volume was extremely loud. It surprised both Toshio and Natsuno.

 

Toshio grew annoyed. “No-! No like I told you, that button is the _volume.”_ He yanked it out of Natsuno's hands and pressed the button that turned the volume down until it was at a volume that wouldn't make their cranky neighbor complain to the landlady. The doctor grabbed Natsuno's hand, cause the young boy to become surprised and lean forward, and lead his fingers to the correct button that change the television channels.

 

“ _These_ are the buttons that change the channels, the blue buttons! Do you understand?” Toshio didn't recognize that he had he lost his temper and was yelling at Natsuno- until he noticed Natsuno's shocked face. Toshio stopped abruptly, and let go of the younger boy's hand.

 

“Sorry.” He mumbled, lighting another cigarette. “Watch whatever you want.”

 

They lived in a one bedroom apartment, in the city. It was the only thing that Toshio could afford. He glanced over at what looked to be a corpse of a person with soft, wavy blond hair. Toshio really didn't know why he did what he did right before he left Sotoba.

 

“It was your father,” He said to himself, looking at the sleeping body. “I wouldn't be able to see him- to look him in the eyes again....” he trailed off. “... If I hadn't saved you.” He had decided a while ago that he would be alright with losing himself to madness. But that wasn't a possibility- with two younger people to take care of now.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter! I think I figured out how I want to start with this story. Thank you for reading, I wrote this rather fast and the next one will be much better.  
> Individuals handle trauma differently, there is no one size fits all for coping with trauma. The characters seem OOC because I want them to seem that way; they're very different after the tragedy in Sotoba. I want the characters in this story to become more in-character, if that makes sense.

Tohru was sitting under the kotatsu, peeling oranges while his mother and sister prepped the table with traditional Japanese foods for New Years. He will be fifteen years old this year, and excited butterflies scatter in his stomach. However, he feels like he forgot about something. He turns to the television, and then to his mother.

 

“Mom, did we forget something when we went out today?” His mother gave him a look of reassurance, sitting down at the kotatsu and grabbing an orange.

 

“What are you taking about, Tohru?” She teased, starting to peel the orange. “Has the junk food gone to your head now?” His two younger siblings laughed. Tohru began to pull at the arms of his sweater to put them over his hands. Some seemed off to Tohru. He was so warm a second ago, under the kotatsu; now- even under it, he felt extremely cold and his body began to shiver. The sense of security he once had was gone. His vision went black, and an extreme rush of a sharp pain hit his chest. He screamed in agony, it was some of the worse pain he had ever experienced in his entire life.

 

“I can't see- Aoi, Tamotsu, where are you?!” He felt weak and panicky as he attempted to reach out and try to grab anything that could be in the dark abyss. “Mom.. Dad! Someone! Help!” His family was gone, his dream had turned into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Shards of his awful, awful last few weeks as a living creature began to surface to his conscious.

 

He was a murderer. A shiki. He was not human.

 

He violently woke up, yelling and sitting upright immediately. Panting, Tohru noticed instantly that his chest was wrapped in tight bandages. It ached horribly, and he teared up from the pain. Tohru had broken his arm when he was eleven years old- when the nurse asked him on a scale of one to ten, how much did it hurt, he remembered how he quit crying and mustered up his energy to kindly yell at the nurse that he was at a 1. If that nurse was with him at this moment, he would have cried and said ten over, and over, and over.

 

His chest pain was making him dizzy. He questioned where he was, and his current existence.

 

Why was he here?

 

Why did his chest hurt?

 

He realized what happened during the final days of the Sotoba tragedy, his arms, which had been hugging his shoulders, dropped and laid next to him. He had been staked in the heart by a villager; he hadn't been alone. Ritsuko, his childhood crush, had also been murdered by a villager. After starvation and a brutal staking in his chest, Tohru doubted that Ritsuko could still be alive. The room he was in had wooden floors, and he was on top of a thin futon mat that was permanently stained with blood, which Tohru presumed was his blood The walls were white, and there was no window or furniture besides the futon. His room wreaked of cigarette smoke. It seemed like a hospital room, but instead was a dreary apartment room.

 

'But who's?' He wondered. A memory popped into his mind- he remembered Ritsuko helping him with his driving lessons; during the awful Sotoba heat they would always stop where Natsuno was and practically beg him to escape the heat and come into the car. Ritsuko and Natsuno were such important people to him; yet he murdererd Natsuno and let Ritsuko die. Without realizing it, his hands gripped the blanket on top of him. That was when Tohru finally noticed that there was someone at the entrance of his room peaking in- if Tohru was still human his breath would have been caught in his throat. It was someone familiar, who had purple hair and was dressed in a black sweater and black sweatpants that were too big for his smaller frame.

 

He was alive.

 

“Natsuno?” Tohru cowered, drawing out every syllable. The other boy, who seemed to respond to that name, left as soon as he had been discovered. Tohru reasoned that the younger boy must have been upset at him and may never want to become friends again. But, he felt happiness knowing that he was alive; a happiness covered in a layer of melancholy.

  
  
“Wait- wait Natsuno! Is this a- are you a dream too?” He began to cry. “Please don't leave me! I'm sorry- sorry! I'm so sorry.” He begged for Natsuno to come back, but to no avail. That was when Toshio Ozaki, Sotoba's doctor, waltzed into Tohru's room, cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was also dressed casually, but his clothes seemed to fit him more. Tohru noticed that he had lost weight, and had a 7 o' clock shadow.

 

“That's enough from you.” He said, a somewhat amused- yet serious, look on his face. “What will I do if our neighbors complain, hm? Tell them I brought someone back from the dead-”

 

“Sensei, it's you!” Said Tohru, pointing at Toshio and stating the obvious. Toshio let out a small laugh.

 

“Mhmm, yeah, I know. Do you remember who you are?” He glanced at the hallway and then looked back at Tohru intently. Tohru nodded, slightly confused by his question.

 

“Well, tell me then.”

  
  
“Sensei, you know who I am! I'm Tohru Mutou. I'm eighteen years old. I lived in Sotoba. I” He hesitated. "Once, when I broke my arm, I went to see you and a nurse to fix it. You also came over once when Aoi was very sick." The doctor nodded fondly.

 

"I'm good friends with your father. Anything else?" He inquired. "Do you remember what happened..." He paused. "... After you died?"

“The first person I murdered was Natsuno Yuuki.” He said without hesitation, accepting his sin. He paused. “ I'm a murderer-” His voice became shaky. “I murdered people.” That's why he was always cold, always afraid of the sun, always afraid of everything single thing-

 

Toshio knelt down next to Tohru and lightly knocked Tohru's head with his clenched fist. It brought Tohru back to the present, whereas he had been obsessed with the past until now.

  
“Stop. Just stop. Please. It's all over, Tohru. I saved you and you're safe here.” Toshio sucked on his cigarette and let out a big puff of smoke. "Put it behind you, or you'll never recover from Sotoba." Hearing Toshio refer to his hometown with such disdain put him at unease. His family and friends lived in Sotoba, and all loved living in Sotoba. 

 

Well, there was one person who didn't like living in Sotoba.

 

“Is Natsuno... alive?” Tohru asked. “... I think I just saw him?” Toshio nodded to confirm his question. Despite his body not producing heat, he felt some sort of warmth, and relief, in his chest. He smiled wide, his first smile in months. However, his relief and happiness did not seem to affect Toshio. The doctor bit his lip while looking at Tohru. It was a new habit he did when was stressed.  
  
  
“Sensei, is something... wrong?” The shiki noticed that his sensei seemed stressed; Toshio didn't respond to him. Instead, he turned his head towards the hallway.

  
“Oi, Natsuno! Come here please.” Tohru made a small gasp and heard footsteps headed towards the room. He was both eager and dreadful of their first official encounter. Would Natsuno forgive him? How was he still alive- did he turn into a Shiki, or did he become what Tatsumi was? It took less than ten seconds from the younger boy to walk over from the living room to the bedroom he was in, yet it felt like it was for hours. When he finally arrived, the younger boy's head peaked into the bedroom, looking at the two from a distance. He seemed curious, almost cat-like.

 

Toshio patted the floor next to him. “Sit here.” Natsuno looked at Toshio, then back at Tohru, then back at Toshio. What was he doing, Tohru wondered. Was this really him? The doctor patted the floor with more rigor. "Now- come here and sit down! He woke up and I want you to meet him." The shiki noticed that Toshio's voice was much more gentle and happier when he directed his speech at Natsuno. It made him more suspicious. The younger boy finally agreed, quietly entering the room and sitting down on the floor with a quiet thump. He made sure he was right next to Toshio, putting distance between him and Tohru. He didn't say anything, it was taking the shiki for a loop. Tohru thought that Natsuno would hate him, refuse to even see him, be violent towards him. But none of that was happening. Natsuno began to stare at Tohru hesitantly.

 

“Natsuno," Toshio began, looking at the younger boy. ".. From now on we will be living with this person. Can you introduce yourself?”

 

Something was really, really wrong.

 

“My name is Natsuno Yuuki. You can call me Natsuno.”

 

Something was really, really, really wrong.

 

Natsuno seemed a little flustered, “Nice to meet you.” Also child-like. Toshio reached over and ruffled his hair. “Come on now, first you never stop talking and now you can hardly introduce yourself?” Natsuno's face grew a little red, he looked away from both of them and glanced at the wooden floor. Tohru's face and mind were blank. He believed that this had to have been a sick joke. The doctor caught onto his surprised and negative reaction quickly.

  
“A-and this person right here-" He motioned to the shiki. "This is Tohru Mutou. He is three years older than you. I hope you both get along. Now, get going- I think your favorite TV show is starting.” Natsuno got up and began to leave the room, he turned and waved to say good-bye before going to the living room. Toshio also got up to shut the door before returning to Tohru's side.

 

“You...  probably have some questions.” Tohru nodded. Plenty of them.

 

“ Are you two up to something? Does he hate me?" The questions were rolling off of his tongue and were too fast for the doctor to answer. "Why didn't he recognize me? What happened?”'

  
  
“I found you next to Ritsuko,” Tohru flinched, a wave of nausea hit him and he put his hand to his mouth. “With a steak right through you. I already had a half- dead Natsuno, yet- I stopped to also get you- because your dad and I are good friends. Declaring you dead was awful." Toshio rubbed his face with his hands before continuing. "You were both so damn heavy, and so hard to hide. Finding an apartment was almost damn near impossible with the money I had on me. After we got this shitty apartment, I found a job at a local clinic. I'm there a lot. Natsuno is always by himself.” At this point, Tohru realized that Toshio was venting to him.Toshio hadn't had anyone to vent to about Sotoba for a month. Instead of interrupting, Tohru continued to listen intently. 

 

“I patched you up as best as I could, you don't have a hole in you now, just a nasty scar. You were both unconscious. You've been gone for a month- but the other one woke up after a day.” The shiki's chest still ached, but Tohru was very impressed by his medical skills. Eventually Toshio began rambling.

  
  
Tohru interrupted when Toshio began to talk about ' _that damn show on the NHK about wild animals is going to be the end of me, that's all we watch at 6 PM now-'_ “Sensei, why didn't he know who I was?”

  
  
“I'm getting to that.” He seemed jittery. “Natsuno woke up- doesn't remember a damn thing.” Tohru's eyes opened wider as his eyerbrows rose.

 

  
“No.. way." He uttered in disbelief. Natsuno couldn't be gone. "How?”

  
  
“Has to be trauma, has to be. He can still use the toilet, shower, everything that's important thank God but other than that?” Toshio took another puff of his cigarette and tried not to blow it into Tohru's face.

 

“Nothing. Not his family, me, you, no one. And because of that- he is childlike. Couldn't hold chopsticks, couldn't cook- still can't cook. Can't figure out how the postal system works... Didn't know how to turn on a TV. Figured that out quick.” A smirk grew on Toshio's face, almost like a father bragging about the simple tasks his kid can do that nobody really cares about.

 

Tohru had noticed, Toshio had changed. He rambled more, was less composed. His dark eyes were impressive for someone in their thirties, and he had a 7 o' clock shadow. Overall, he seemed more erratic. He opened his mouth to speak more.

 

“I have rules for you. I work as a doctor. I can sneak blood out of the office every time I work, for you. Natsuno doesn't need it. You will only drink that blood, no other blood.” Tohru nodded apprehensively, he didn't believe in his ability to do that, to have control over himself. Toshio was very perceptive, he noticed Tohru's hesitance immediately.  
  
  
“If you take anyone's blood, and kill someone.” He paused, and smiled. “I will kill Natsuno right in front of you.” Tohru, astonished, opened his mouth in disbelief at his bold claim.

 

“How could you do-” Toshio interrupted.

  
  
“How could I? Because I can use him to control you. You are a murderer, you seem to think I can trust you that easily.” Toshio got up on his two legs, standing above Tohru who was tearing up.

 

"Sensei, I am a shiki. I'm strong and I can easily stop you." Tohru retorted. Toshio had a small bitter laugh.

 

“I'm the one who started the shiki massacre. It was all me. I can and I will." A chill went down Tohru's spine. The doctor's sheer menace was frightening. "After all, I know better than to threaten that I'll kill you, you would probably enjoy it since you're one of those shiki.” Tohru was stunned. They had all changed for the worse because of Sotoba. His sensei was completely right. Tohru hated himself for the sins he committed. But he wouldn't let Natsuno be killed again.

 

Toshio's tone of voice softened. “I figured out that a certain painkiller can make the pain more bearable for you. I'll give you some when you wake up again. You should be all better in a few days. Please give it your all now.” He sounded more reassuring and compassionate.

  
  
“Mm. I will. I think I'll sleep now.”

 

“Let us know when you're awake.”

 

“Sensei.” Tohru and Toshio made eye contact.

 

“Yeah?”

  
  
“I'll protect Natsuno this time. I promise.” Toshio grinned and put his hands behind his hand. 

  
  
“I like that optimism. I'll leave it to you then.” He had a genuinely happy smile.

  
  
Toshio turned off the lights in the room and left. Tohru laid down onto the futon and fell asleep almost instantly, feeling exhausted after only being awake for an hour. His new journey of atonement was now beginning.

 


End file.
